THE FIGHT.
The Challenge to Surrender and the Defiance--A Long Parley--The
Prompt Response to a Call for Aid--The Firing Begins--Flight of
Kline and his Deputies--Gorsuch is Killed and his Son Terribly
Wounded.
Padgett, guide and informer, led the Southern and Federal forces to
within about a quarter mile of the Parker house, where they stopped at
a little stream crossing the long lane, ate some crackers and cheese
and “fixed their ammunition.” It was then just about daybreak; it was
a heavy, foggy morning; and Padgett found it was his time to withdraw.
As the party drew near to the short lane which led into the house
and little garden-orchard around it they were seen by Nelson Ford
and Joshua Hammond, two of the Gorsuch slaves who had evidently been
picketed. They retreated to the house; Gorsuch and Kline followed and
the Marshal officially announced their errand. Some inmate of the house
answered that the men called for were not there; and when Kline, as he
testified, went to go up the stairs, followed by the elder Gorsuch,
a five-pronged fish “gig” was thrown at him; next came a flying axe.
Neither missile hit him; he and Mr. Gorsuch withdrew, and he says a
shot was fired at them from the house and he returned the fire. Then
Kline made a feint of sending off for a hundred men “to scare the
negroes.” His bluff had that temporary effect and a parley ensued.
During this it was made manifest that a considerable number of armed
men were in Parker’s house.
Meantime, on their way, the officers had heard a bugle blown;
conjectures differed whether it was a signal from the Parker house
or a summons for the laborers on the railroad to go to work. The
evidence on this point was not positive, but the besieged soon sounded
their horn from the upper story. Parker is quoted as saying that Kline
threatened to burn the house, and he defied him to do it; that Mrs.
Parker sounded a horn which brought their allies; and the deputies
fired at her as she sounded it, without causing her to desist; that
Pinckney counselled surrender, but Parker was for fight. Parker’s own
accounts show no lack of self-assertion nor absence of self-confidence.
That may or may not enhance their credibility.
Some early summons called a mixed mob together, for while the brief
events already described were occurring, Castner Hanway, who lived a
full mile away, rode up on a bald-faced sorrel horse; Elijah Lewis came
on foot in his shirt sleeves and a straw hat; Zeke Thompson, the Indian
negro, arrived with a scythe in one hand and a revolver in the other;
Noah Buley rode in on a handsome gray horse and carrying a gun; Harvey
Scott was there, weaponless; and a half score of others armed with
guns, scythes and clubs, were assembled--far more than the upstairs of
that little cabin could have held, even without the women. Other white
men came trooping along, who in Parker’s imagination were Gap gangsters
enrolled by Kline as “special constables”; but there is no satisfactory
proof that these were anybody but residents of the vicinage attracted
to the place by the commotion.
The excitement and confusion that subsequently ensued, the quick
succession of tragic events, the prompt retreat of the officers and
the almost immediate flight from the vicinity of their guiltiest
assailants, and the fact that none of them remained or ever returned
to tell the whole story, combine to make it difficult even now to aver
with certainty what next actually happened. It is, however, reasonably
sure that Hanway and Lewis were called upon to interfere and aid in
executing the warrants and they declined to do so; but they neither
advised nor inspired any violence; nor does it appear that they arrived
on the scene by any pre-arrangement or otherwise than from hearing that
an attempt was being made by some one to take negroes from the Parker
house.
Parker says Dickinson Gorsuch opened the next stage of the battle
by firing at him in resentment of a supposed insult to his father,
and that he knocked the pistol out of Young Gorsuch’s hand before
“fighting commenced in earnest,” and the outside negroes then shot both
Gorsuches. Deputy Kline, who made himself somewhat ridiculous on the
witness stand, remembered most vividly how he himself went “over the
fence and out” through the cornfield and did not very clearly account
for the fatal renewal of hostilities. Joshua Gorsuch testified that as
Edward Gorsuch started to the house in answer to Kline’s call to him to
come on and get his property, his uncle was murderously assaulted with
clubs and he fired a revolver to save his kinsman, but his cap burst
and the weapon did not go off; he was severely beaten and ran for his
life, the infuriated crowd pursuing him; a thick felt hat saved his
life and he rode off from the battlefield behind some one on a horse,
supposing Edward and Dickinson Gorsuch were already killed; his retreat
ended only at York; but it was months before he recovered from his
wounds.
Whoever else ran or stayed, the Gorsuches, father and son, stood their
ground and took the enemy’s fire. Dickinson warned the elder that they
would be overpowered; but when the parent declined to retreat the son
stayed by him until he was himself clubbed and shot down, as he went to
the rescue of his assaulted father. Eighty shot penetrated Dickinson’s
arms, thigh and body--and many of them stayed there; so that when he
died in 1882--thirty-one years after he was shot--his body prepared for
burial was “pitted like a sponge” with the marks of the “Christiana
Riot.” When he was supposed to be dying Dickinson Gorsuch was taken
into the shade of a big oak tree, about fifty yards from where the
small lane then entered the “long lane.”
[Illustration: THE OLD RIOT HOUSE. WILLIAM PARKER’S HOME.
THE PLACE WHERE THE BATTLE WAS FOUGHT.]
Dr. Pearce was hit with a missile from an upper window; Nathan Nelson
knew and recognized Buley, one of the runaways, and while, at the
outset, only fifteen or twenty negroes were lined in the lane with
guns, scythes, clubs and corn cutters, Nelson saw from seventy-five to
a hundred before the smoke of battle had entirely cleared. Sam Hopkins
and his historic corn cutter were among the later arrivals.
One of the dramatic features of the engagement was the appearance
on the field of old Isaiah Clarkson. He summoned fifteen or twenty
infuriated and raging negroes into the cornfield and “called them to
order” three times before he could quiet them, and withhold them from
violence. Meantime old Clarkson had seen the body of Edward Gorsuch
lying alone where he fell dead, clubbed, cut and pierced with gun
shots, his son desperately wounded; his kinsmen beaten and driven off;
the United States deputies marshal in full retreat--infuriated women,
forgetful of all humane instincts, revenging on a humane Christian
gentleman’s lifeless body the wrongs their race had suffered from
masters of altogether different mould, rushed from the house and with
corn cutters and scythe blades hacked the bleeding and lifeless body
as it lay in the garden walk. At the first hearing Scott, the witness
who afterwards swore differently on the trial, testified that he lived
with John Kerr and had stayed at Parker’s out of doors in the road all
that night, having been persuaded to go there by John Morgan and Henry
Simms, who were armed; that he saw them both shoot and Henry Simms shot
Gorsuch; that John Morgan cut him in the head with a corn cutter after
he fell. Dr. Pearce stated under oath that he saw Noah Buhly running
past Gorsuch, but he could not say that Buhly did the shooting. At the
time Edward Gorsuch was shot he was standing still calling his nephew
Joshua and had no weapon in his hand.
It will never be known whose shot or how many killed Edward Gorsuch.
More than one weapon was directed at him and doubtless several were
guilty of his blood. It was not long until a consciousness of this
fell upon the mob and they scattered as rapidly as they had assembled.
If the Federal deputies had dispersed in fear and flight and the
local authorities were slow to move, neither were the guilty laggard
in flight. By nightfall every man inmate of Parker’s house and every
runaway from Baltimore County were on their way to Canada. Hay mows
and straw stacks weltered above the throbbing presence of trembling
fugitives; and all the local agencies of rapid news and transportation
which were at command of the anti-slavery people were set in motion to
get and keep the accused in advance of the warrants. Somebody tarried
long enough on the Parker premises to despoil Gorsuch’s body of $300
or $400 in money, which was on his person when he fell and which was
missing at the coroner’s inquest. According to Tamsy Brown it was taken
from his body by a black man, who divided it among the colored women
and Abe Johnson. On a blank leaf of the Padgett letter, heretofore
printed, were found some memoranda made by Mr. Gorsuch himself of the
railroad schedules and names of persons in the neighborhood of the
scene of the affray, with whom it was supposed colored men resided,
together with the following:
Robert M. Lee
John Agen Henry H. Cline
Depatised
Marshal Kline
Lawyer Lee
and Benit
Commissioner
Ingraham
O. Riley’s Telegraph
avoid Halzel
Councelman
Cpt. Shutt
J. R. Henson.
The significance of these entries will be recognized. No weapons were
found on the body. This of course does not prove that Mr. Gorsuch was
unarmed, as he easily might have lost or have been despoiled of his
arms. Fred Douglass boasted that Gorsuch’s pistol had been presented to
him. His family believe, and from his habits of life and temperament
it may be presumed, the elder Gorsuch was unarmed. He depended mainly
on the force of the law’s warrant and, perhaps too confidently, on the
nerve of the Federal deputies marshal.
Dickinson Gorsuch was soon removed to friendly shelter and tender
ministrations under the hospitable roof of Levi Pownall’s homestead.
There he learned to know that the Quaker families of the valley, while
they were considerate of the slave, could be no less kind to the master
in distress. The daily entries of his diary attest his gratitude and
appreciation, and these he substantially manifested throughout his
lifetime. His contemporaneous portrait herein published was taken from
a daguerreotype sent to the Pownall family. Dr. Asher Pusey Patterson,
who attended him, was then practicing at Smyrna. He was of the Lower
End families whose names he bore. Dr. John L. Atlee, Sr., of Lancaster,
was called into consultation.
During Dickinson Gorsuch’s stay in the Pownall household he was
visited in his convalescence by many of his Baltimore County friends
and relatives. Among them were his brother John S.; his uncle Talbott
Gorsuch; his sister Mary (afterwards Mrs. Morrison); his cousin George
and others. It was ten days before he could eat and nearly three weeks
before he could sit up. By October 1 he could take a short drive and
was entertained next day at Ambrose Pownall’s. When he returned home in
charge of some of his family on October 4, Dr. Patterson accompanied
them as far as Columbia. During his recovery he had no more popular
visitor than his friend Alex. Morrison, who subsequently married his
sister. Morrison is described by the older inhabitants as one who
“made friends everywhere.” He kept up his acquaintance with people
about Christiana until his death and visited there as late as 1903. He
rejoiced in the establishment of good relations between those who had
been on opposite sides of the conflict of 1851. Dickinson Gorsuch was
56 years old when he died, August 2, 1882.
Exactly when and how Parker, Pinckney and the fugitive slaves got away
from the neighborhood is difficult to tell with absolute certainty;
but a surviving neighbor throws light on their movements immediately
after the affray. George Steele, now living in Chester County (who
subsequently married Elizabeth, daughter of Levi W. Pownall), was
making charcoal iron at the Sadsbury forges in 1851. He lived near by
the Parker place and recalls the events with great distinctness. He
met some negroes coming from the scene exultant over its results and
he warned them of their serious danger. He says Parker first came to
Pownall’s to arrange for Dickinson Gorsuch’s removal there, but another
neighbor was already on the way with the wounded man. Both Parker and
Pownall remained hidden all day; the news of young Gorsuch’s serious
condition brought many visitors to the Pownall house; later in the
evening Parker and Pinckney themselves called and for the first time
seemed to realize their position. Some of the women members of the
household warned them; and, while Mrs. Pownall was nursing the wounded
man to life, she was sparing of her pantry supplies to fill a “pillow
case” with food for the fugitives; and her husband, under whose roof
Gorsuch was receiving every kind attention, loaned of his clothing
to their disguise--all being carried to them by George Pownall, then
a boy, who was directed to find them at a certain apple tree on the
farther side of the orchard.
[Illustration: A SOUTHERN VISITOR.
COL. ALEXANDER MORRISON, FRIEND AND KINSMAN OF THE GORSUCHES, WHO KEPT
UP FRIENDLY RELATIONS WITH THE POWNALL FAMILY.]
At the “Riot House” the Pownalls found both Pinckney’s and Parker’s
loaded guns; and they prudently burned a lot of letters found there,
which would have incriminated some of their neighbors in violation
of the Fugitive Slave Law. The Pownalls later received anonymous
information that Parker had reached Canada. Gorsuch himself is said to
have expressed kindly feeling for Parker, which bears out the theory
that Parker tried to stem the riot after it attained a deadly stage.
Even they who were guiltless of their neighbor’s blood were not
unmindful of the responsibility imposed upon their community by the
violent killing of Gorsuch and the escape of his slayers. His dead body
was taken to Christiana and lay at Fred Zercher’s hotel, where Harrar’s
store now is and nearly opposite the Commemoration Monument. There a
coroner’s inquest was held before noon. The main facts of the riot were
related by Kline, “Harvey” Scott (who later recanted), and others. John
Bodley and Jake Woods testified that Elijah Lewis passed them in the
early morning, when they were working at James Cooper’s, and that Lewis
said “William Parker’s house was surrounded by kidnappers and it was no
time to take out potatoes.”
The coroner’s jury, summoned by Joseph D. Pownall, Esq., consisted of
George Whitson, John Rowland, E. Osborne Dare, Hiram Kinnard, Samuel
Miller, Lewis Cooper, George Firth, William Knott, John Hillis, William
H. Millhouse, Joseph Richwine and Miller Knott. Their finding was:
“That on the morning of the 11th inst., the neighborhood was thrown
into an excitement by the above deceased, and some five or six persons
in company with him, making an attack upon a family of colored persons,
living in said Township, near the Brick Mill, about 4 o’clock in the
morning, for the purpose of arresting some fugitive slaves as they
alleged, many of the colored people of the neighborhood collected,
and there was considerable firing of guns and other fire-arms by both
parties, upon the arrival of some of the neighbors at the place, after
the riot had subsided, found the above deceased, lying upon his back or
right side dead. Upon a post mortem examination upon the body of the
said deceased, made by Drs. Patterson and Martin, in our presence, we
believe he came to his death by gun shot wounds that he received in the
above mentioned riot, caused by some person or persons to us unknown.”
Dr. John Martin and Dr. A. P. Patterson reported officially that
Gorsuch came to his death by a gun shot wound made by slug or heavy
shot, occupying the upper part of the right breast, and that there was
an incision found near the frontal bone, produced by a light sharp
instrument, and a fracture of the left humerus by some blunt weapon.
It must be conceded, even at this distance in time, the jury’s
thermometer of popular indignation at the crime scarcely registered
above the mark of “cold neutrality.”
Scharf’s history of Baltimore County states that on September 13th and
15th meetings of citizens of Baltimore County were held to take action
in the premises. Wm. H. Freeman, John Wethered, Samuel Worthington,
Wm. Matthews, Wm. Taggart, John B. Pearce, Samuel H. Taggart, Wm. Fell
Johnson, Wm. H. Hoffman, Edward S. Myers, John Merryman, and Henry
Carroll were appointed a committee to collect all the facts in the
case and transmit them to Governor Lowe, in order that he might lay
them before the President of the United States. Another committee,
consisting of John B. Holmes, Levi K. Bowen, Dr. Nicholas Hutchins, J.
M. McComas, and E. Parsons, was appointed to confer with the gentlemen
who had accompanied Mr. Gorsuch into Pennsylvania. A meeting at
Slader’s tavern, on September 15th, passed resolutions calling upon
the people of each district of the county to elect delegates to meet
at Cockeysville on October 4th for the purpose of forming a county
association, and recommending the formation of district associations
“for the protection of the people in their slave and other property.”
An indignation meeting of six thousand persons was held at Monument
Square, Baltimore City, on September 15th, at which Hon. John H. T.
Jerome presided, and addresses were made by Z. Collins Lee, Coleman
Yellott, Francis Gallagher, Samuel H. Taggart, and Col. George W.
Hughes.